The interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey announced Monday her office has charged Rep. LaMonica McIver in connection with a physical altercation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as she and other members of Congress visited a detention facility.
Alina Habba, in a statement posted on social media, said the New Jersey Democrat had “assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement” in violation of federal law. No records of the charges were available through the federal court system Monday night.
“That conduct cannot be overlooked by the chief federal law enforcement official in the State of New Jersey, and it is my Constitutional obligation to ensure that our federal law enforcement is protected when executing their duties,” Habba said.
Habba, a former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, previously said she was reviewing the May 9 visit of McIver and other members of Congress to Delaney Hall to inspect treatment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees.
“No one is above the law – politicians or otherwise. It is the job of this office to uphold justice impartially, regardless of who you are. Now we will let the justice system work,” Habba’s statement said.
McIver, in a statement about the charges, said ICE agents “created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation” when they arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. “We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short,” McIver said.
“The charges against me are purely political—they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,” she said.
Habba also said her office agreed to dismiss the misdemeanor trespass charge against Baraka “for the sake of moving forward,” and that she “persistently made efforts to address the issues” with McIver without bringing criminal charges.
Habba said she has given McIver “every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she has unfortunately declined.”
The confrontation that resulted from the visit has led to both sides accusing each other of instigating conflict. Videos produced from both sides seek to validate their claims.
A statement from Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, along with ranking members of the panel’s subcommittees, criticized the “unfounded targeting” of McIver.
Raskin and the other members said the charges “reveals the increasingly authoritarian nature of this Administration and its relentless, illegal attempts to suppress any dissent or oversight, including from judges, Members of Congress, and the American people, which check lawless executive power.”
“Representative McIver has our full support, and we will do everything in our power to help fight this outrageous threat to our constitutional system,” the statement said.
Raskin said that McIver participated in a peaceful tour of the facility after the incident. The statement also pointed to a federal law that requires administration officials to provide members of Congress with access to ICE facilities without prior notice.
Discussion of the altercation took over a hearing on the Department of Homeland Security budget request last week, as House Homeland Security Chair Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., and other GOP members of the panel criticized members who were present for the oversight visit.
Democrats said that ICE escalated the confrontation over what was supposed to be an oversight visit of the facility.
In a statement Monday night, Green backed the administration’s charges against McIver, and said that he would work with House leadership to “hold her accountable.”
“We need to send a clear message to would-be lawbreakers around this country—under this administration, no matter how privileged you are, you will be subject to the rule of law,” Green’s statement said.
Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter, R-Ga., has introduced a measure to strip members who were present at the visit of their committee assignments.
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